Museum of Music Boxes and Automatons

Sainte-Croix

The clockmaker Antoine Favre-Salomon, a native of Geneva, invented a musical pocket watch in 1796. Since then he is considered to be the inventor of the music box, and Sainte-Croix became the world capital of mechanical music. Music automatons are still produced here.

Group Activities

Language:

de, en, fr, it, es

Duration:

1/2 day

Persons:

10 - 50

Cost:

Yes

Season:

Whole year

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Sainte-Croix welcomes visitors with a sign-post stating: "Welcome to the land of mechanical dreams". Towards the end of the 19th century, up to 600 workers in over 40 companies produced mechanical singing birds and music automatons in Sainte-Croix. The village in Canton Vaud thus became the capital of music boxes and mechanical music.

The CIMA Museum (Centre International de la Mécanique d'Art) is solely dedicated to music boxes and mechanical music. The museum exhibits the history of mechanical music with objects ranging from singing birds to music boxes to the cylinder phonograph invented by Thomas Edison. Alongside the well equipped museum, the Reuge company has not only kept this tradition alive but continues to produce modern artworks of mechanical music that are more innovative than ever.

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*All prices are in Swiss Francs and correct at time of print. Prices shown in currencies other than Swiss Francs are guideline prices only and subject to exchange rate variations. All programmes and prices are subject to change without prior notice.